Maithree Wijesekara is an Australian-Sri Lankan writer based in Melbourne. Graduating with a Master’s degree in Dentistry, she splits her time between telling people to please brush their teeth, and writing stories inspired by the fantastical and the real world. When she isn’t writing, you can find her attempting to finish her never-ending TBR pile and ingesting unhealthy amounts of coffee. If given the chance, she will slip in a mention of her dearly departed Labrador during conversation. You can find her on Instagram @maithree_wijesekara.

Welcome to the Hive, Maithree. Let’s start with the basics: tell us about The Prince Without Sorrow – why should readers check it out?

Thank you, I’m so glad to be able to chat to you about The Prince Without Sorrow. It is a fantasy novel that is loosely inspired by Emperor Ashoka of the Mauryan Dynasty of Ancient India. It follows Prince Ashoka of the same name. He is considered an outcast by his father, the tyrannical Emperor Adil for opposing his brutal onslaught against the mayakari (witches). It also follows Shakti, a mayakari raised to follow principles of nonviolence, who witnesses the murder of her aunt and village at the hands of the emperor. In an act of revenge, she casts a curse that changes the course of her and Ashoka’s lives. Both must learn to grapple with the consequences of power: to take it for themselves or risk losing it completely. If you love magic, witches, and family drama – I’d say this might be a good fit for you.

Tell us a little something about your writing process – do you have a certain method? Do you find music helps? Give us a glimpse into your world!

When I’m writing, the Pomodoro Timer is my best friend. 25 minutes of uninterrupted writing, followed by a brief 5-minute break. I find that I’m the most productive when I use this method instead of staring at the screen for hours without a break. 

I also don’t like writing in the same spot for two long, especially when I’m on deadline. It makes me feel stagnant. I like to move around the house, take over my dad’s study nook (because it has a nice view of the street), or haul myself to the local library. Music can be a double-edged sword. I love piano music, but when I’m writing fantasy, it can’t be peppy. It must be eerie. And songs with lyrics? You can kiss my concentration goodbye. 

Speaking of worlds, your book is inspired by the Mauryan Empire of Ancient India. What drew you to this historical period? 

Great question! It’s less so the Mauryan Empire itself that I was inspired by (the reason being that there isn’t much information available about it), but more so Emperor Ashoka who was part of the dynasty. 

Emperor Ashoka is a notable figure in Buddhist history, mostly known for his deviation from cruelty to nonviolence. His change can actually be seen through a shift in epithets – he went from being known as Ashoka the Cruel to Ashoka the Great. I had always been fascinated by his adoption of nonviolence after committing a brutal military campaign in Kalinga. What led him to make such a change and was a difficult change to make? That last question was more or less how the Prince Ashoka of The Prince Without Sorrow was born. My Ashoka took the real emperor’s arc and reversed it. While his story isn’t necessarily the same as his real-life inspiration (the novel isn’t historical in the slightest), there are nods here and there to the historical Emperor Ashoka that I hope those who know of him would appreciate.

Your world also consists of witches and nature spirits? What kind of powers do they possess? Tell us more about the magic system!

In my world, nature spirits exist as magical creatures who are physical manifestation of the natural world. As they represent the earth, they’re able to manipulate the natural world around them. However, they can only communicate with witches, as the language of the spirits is unable to be spoken by the human tongue. Spirit speak sounds a lot like birdsong and flutes. 

These nature spirits are further divided into two categories. Minor spirits, who embody smaller entities like trees, vines, flowers, and Great Spirits – who represent larger domains/areas of land, like forestland, vast stretches of grass plains, rivers, etc. Minor spirits appear in all sorts of small, amorphous, blob-like forms. Meanwhile, Great Spirits appear as giant wild animals, like tigers or leopards. If you were to think of them in human terms, Great Spirits are like kings, and the minor spirits would be like soldiers. 

Witches (also known as mayakari) in this world have three notable abilities: speaking to nature spirits, cursing the living, and raising the dead. Speaking to nature spirits is handy for everyone, because it helps keeps the peace between humans and nature. If one wishes to deforest large areas of natural land, its Great Spirit needs to be appeased (i.e.: the creature needs to give an ok) before the process can begin. Otherwise, you risk angering a Great Spirit, which – as Ashoka finds out in Taksila, thanks to his father – is not fun to deal with at all. 

The ability to curse the living, while extremely cool, has stipulations. To curse a living being, a witch must use cursed speech, which itself is a very ambiguous language. For example, they can curse someone with death, but not a specific kind of death. How and when the curse enacts remains up to chance. It can take several seconds to several years. Luckily, they can be undone (if the victim isn’t dead), if you know the exact phrasing of the curse. This means that a mayakari can undo another’s curse as long as they know it. 

And the final ability (raising the dead), doesn’t operate the way you think it might. The concept of a fixed, permanent soul doesn’t exist in this world. They bring back what is essentially an ever-changing consciousness, which brings about the question – who and what are the mayakari bringing back? 

If you were transported to your own fictional world, which of your characters would you make an alliance with and how do you think you’d fare?

I don’t think she’d find me a particularly good ally, but Princess Aarya (Ashoka’s older sister). I’d have to watch myself, though. There’d be a 75% chance that I’d be backstabbed, or that she’d leave me for the crows. 

Now let’s discuss your characters. Can you tell us a bit more about Prince Ashoka and Shakti? What kind of personalities do they possess? Are they vastly different from one another or do they share similarities? 

Shakti is – and I say this with love – a ‘do first, think later’ kind of girl. She’s reckless and temperamental but with a good heart. In contrast, Ashoka is more reserved. He’s cautious, and at time a little bit too idealistic. They act like foils of each other at the start of the story – a witch raised to follow pacifist ideals seeking revenge, compared to a pacifist prince who has grown up with a father who champions violence. 

In terms of similarities? Both hate Emperor Adil. Both want peace for the mayakari, though the ways in which they try to achieve them are markedly different. 

What (or who) are your most significant fantasy/sci-fi influences? Are there any creators whom you dream of working with someday?

As a child, I was very much a fan of Studio Ghibli films and manga, and still am to this day. Spirited Away had me in a chokehold, and when I was a little older, so did Princess Mononoke. I just loved the magical way Hayao Miyazaki depicted the natural world in his films. When I was in high school, I read and loved Fullmetal Alchemist by Hiromu Arakawa. The story of alchemists, human souls, and its exploration of the brutality of war really stuck with me. Chapter 5 (episode 4 in the anime) scarred me for life, and I skipped it on my last rewatch because I didn’t want to cry (fans of FMAB will know what I mean).

We see such varying opinions from authors when it comes to the time of editing their books. How have you found the editing process? Enjoyable, stressful or satisfying?

All three! As a newbie author, the deadlines were what I had to adjust to. Before I had an agent, or a publishing deal, there was no time pressure. I had all the time in the world to write the first book. Now, with time restraints, I’ve been learning to plan and actively make time for writing so that I don’t fall behind. Honestly, I’m lucky to have this be a problem!

We always appreciate a beautiful book cover, and both your US cover and UK are so strikingly different! How involved in the process were you? Did you feel that both covers really captured the aesthetic of your book?  

Both are indeed such beautiful covers! I was lucky that I was able to give my two cents for both covers. We set up a Pinterest board to capture the overall vibe (ethereal, Ghibli-esque, eerie), and proceeded from there. The Harper Voyager team found some brilliant artists for me to look at. The talented cover artists that we ended up going with (Julia De Narvaez for the UK cover and Tasia M.S. for North America) created such beautiful, memorable covers. They’re so different but both capture the overall aesthetic of the book in their own way. 

One of our favourite questions here on the Fantasy Hive: which fantastical creature would you ride into battle and why?

If we’re talking about creatures in the Ran Empire – a giant leopard, for sure. I’d be too scared of flying on a winged serpent. If we’re talking about mythical beasts in general, it would be cool to ride Cerberus into battle. An enormous three-headed dog would scare anyone. 

Tell us about a book you love. Any hidden gems?

I love reading literary fiction. A book I will always recommend people is The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida by Shehan Karunatilaka. It follows a war photographer who dies and returns as a ghost in 1990’s Sri Lanka in the midst of civil war, and his quest to unearth some incriminating, buried photographs in seven days’ time. I don’t often read novels written in the second person because they have the tendency to throw me off, but this one, I devoured. 

Can you tell us a little something about the rest of your Obsidian Throne series? What more can we expect?

You can definitely expect more of a power struggle between the Maurya siblings in book two! Ashoka is slowly learning to shed his more pacifist ideals, and this creates a lot of tension with Aarya. Shakti, my beloved gremlin child, won’t be having the best of times (unfortunately). I can’t spoil too much, but she’ll be exploring the origins of Collective a lot more. 

Finally, what is the one thing you hope readers take away from your writing?

I’d like readers to read the book and come to their own conclusion of whether the decisions Ashoka and Shakti make are justified, given their respective situations. 

 The Prince Without Sorrow by Maithree Wijesekara is published by HarperVoyager on the 27^th March. You can order your copy HERE